The common man chain for DeFi Protocols

Built to connect the Ethereum and Cosmos ecosystems, Cronos Chain prides itself as the first Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchain to be deployed on Cosmos.

Since its launch on Nov. 8, 2021, the blockchain has seen steady growth. Over 300 Decentralized Applications (dApps) have been built on it, with over 59 million transactions processed so far, and nearly a million unique addresses used, according to data from Cronos Chain Explorer.

Bridging and EVM compatibility bring together the familiarity of Ethereum wallets and tooling, with the increased performance and lower fees of the Cosmos ecosystem.

The dApps operating on Cronos are a healthy mix of decentralized exchanges (DEXes), non-fungible token (NFT) projects, blockchain bridges, blockchain games, lending and borrowing protocols, and many more.

At the recently concluded Messari Mainnet event, BSC News interviewed Jay Lin Jiele, a member of the partnership teams at Cronos Labs, who offered insights into the nature of the network’s partnership with Crypto.com, Cronos Accelerator Program, and many more.

Cronos network and Crypto.com

With over 50 million users and operational in 90 countries, Crypto.com is a leading cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2016 and based in Singapore.

As a strategic partner with Cronos, Crypto.com provides a platform where its users can easily onboard to Cronos chain through many of Crypto.com’s service offerings. These include its application, the crypto exchange itself, the DeFi wallet, its NFTs platform, and many more. In addition, users can bridge supported assets using the Crypto.com App and Exchange to the Cronos chain.

Commenting on the nature of the relationship between Cronos and Crypto.com,

Jay Lin Jiele explained that:

“Cronos itself is an open-source EVM chain. So, we are a separate entity from Crypto.com. But we have very strong support and close ties with Crypto.com, such that across their (Crypto.com) suite of products, Cronos is always featured. Cronos is one of those chains where as a Crypto.com user with assets on the exchange, you can easily withdraw your assets into Cronos. Also, within the Crypto.com DeFi wallet, which is their non-custodial wallet, Cronos is one of the main chains supported on the wallet itself. In essence, what that means is that Cronos is deeply integrated across the suite of products that Crypto.com has.

Commenting further on how the partnership benefits Crypto.com as well, Jay Lin Jiele pointed out that:

“We work closely with Crypto.com such that when we see a project that has a huge potential when listed on its exchange, we recommend such project and set up initial introductions between the parties.”

The Cronos Accelerator Program

On June 7, Cronos Chain launched the Cronos Accelerator Program. Funded by the $100 million Cronos Labs Ecosystem Fund, the accelerator program is a 10-week program wherein the projects accepted meet with reputable project builders within the Cronos ecosystem. Builders collaborate through weekly workshops led by Cronos Labs and external subject matter experts on various topics as they concern the projects being built.

As confirmed by Jay Lin, during the 10-week program, selected projects go through multiple workshops that touch on various parts of building and promoting a protocol, such as web3 marketing, protocol governance, technical aspects of building on Cronos, go-to-market strategies, and tokenomics.

Of the 300+ dApps across a variety of DeFi, Web3 Gaming, and infrastructure projects that applied to be a part of the first cohort of the accelerator program, only nine projects were selected. They included D.G.Pals, Eyeball Pool, Harbor, The New Resistance, Wild Forest, Bubble Maps, Meshlink, ReferReach, and Glass Finance.

On what these projects stand to gain from the accelerator program, Jay Lin said:

“Projects get mentorship from various partners of a number of venture capital funds. They will come in to essentially mentor these projects. For example, we have recently worked with Mechanism capital, Crypto.com Capital, and Spartan capital. Essentially, the aim of the program is to connect you with strong mentors and strong partners that can add value to your project.”

At the end of the program, a demo day is organized where the projects in the accelerator program pitch their project ideas to invited VC partners. The virtual demo day for the nine projects in the first cohort of the accelerator program took place on 5 October.

On how the funds will be allocated to deserving projects, Jay Lin told BSC News:

“It will be strategic investments. If we see that a project has the potential to really scale up the chain (Cronos) itself, we definitely want to align with long-term incentives and long-term support. This will be done through early-stage investment and subsequent running investments into such a project. In case we believe that investing directly in a project might not be possible, we offer milestone-based grants based on specific kinds of key metrics.”

Going forward, there will be an average of 3–4 cohorts per year. Projects looking to be a part of the Cronos Acceleration Program can keep an eye out for when applications are opened for the next cohort.